The big story: Burnley battle hard, deny Chelsea

Burnley refused to buckle down to sustained Chelsea pressure and managed to scare the English Premier League table-toppers on more than one occasion in attack. The match ended in a 1-1 draw and Sean Dyche’s side certainly earned the point. Chelsea stretched their lead to 10 points with the draw.

It was Antonio Conte’s side who took the lead at Turf Moor with Pedro calmly slotting the ball into the net after finding space in the box.

The home side hit back soon after and it was through a sumptuous free-kick from Robbie Brady, curling the ball out of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois’s reach. Despite Chelsea having a lion’s share of possession – 71% to Burnley’s 29% – they were unable to break Burnley down.

Cricket

  • Discarded Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir were in fine form as North Zone downed South Zone by eight wickets in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 trophy. Being asked to chase a stiff target of 174, Dhawan scored 50 and Gambhir 81 as North Zone got home with eight balls to spare.
  • Elsewhere, Harpreet Singh guided Central Zone to victory over West Zone with a fine half-century.
  • Bangladesh batting coach Thilan Samaraweera has praised Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, but refrained from comparing him to spin great Muttiah Muralitharan, “He has many variations, he can change his line and length but these two are hard to compare,” Samaraweera said.
  • Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara was hopeful that his quick scoring in recent times will help him earn a callup in the shorter formats, “Even in Test format, the way I am striking the ball, the way I am batting, few series, I have changed my game which is helping me in T20 and ODI game. In near future, I think things will change,”  28-year-old. 

Football

  • East Bengal and Mohun Bagan played out an entertaining 0-0 draw at the Kanchenjunga stadium at Siliguri on Sunday. East Bengal remained at the top of the table.
  • Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer opined that the Bavarian giants have failed to hit the heights of last season.
  • Manchester City skipper Vincent Kompany stated that the current season has been “learnful” for the Sky Blues under new boss Pep Guardiola. 

Chess

  • Fourth seed Dronavalli Harika was held to a draw by Bangladesh’s Shamima Akter Liza in the first round of the World Chess Championships.

Shooting

  • Ace shooter Jitu Rai shrugged off his no-show at the Rio Olympics but eyed a medal in the 2020 games in Tokyo. “I went to Rio well prepared [after winning a record seven international medals in one calendar year] The Sports Ministry, NRAI, my employers and SAI all did their best so you can’t say that there was no effort. It just didn’t click for me in Rio that day,” Rai said.

Taekwondo

  • The Taekwondo Federation of India’s Joint Secretary Sanjay Sharma has been arrested for allegedly sexually exploiting a minor, reported PTI. 

Hockey

  • Delhi Waveriders saw off a spirited Kalinga Lancers, beating them 6-4 in a game where advantage swung both ways.